New York Times Co at Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : <_ALACRA_META_ABSTRACT>So maybe just to start us off, you recently set goals to deliver healthy revenue growth and margin expansion this year. But you also spoke more specifically about a focus this year on growing the top of funnel audience and the Engage prospect pool. Can you start off, maybe just giving us an update on the state of what you see as the audience opportunity that's ahead of you still, and how you plan on delivering that growth?

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Great. That's a great introduction. And I definitely want to dig into the new formats. But the stat you mentioned in terms of daily user growth was interesting. The 50 million to 100 million was a weekly user.

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : So I guess in that context, what gives you the broader confidence in a healthy consumer appetite for paid journalism and the ability to convert free or registered users someone who pays and -- REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 03, 2025 / 9:50PM, NYT.N - New York Times Co at Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Yes.

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Understood. That makes sense. So as I think about what you have to offer, I feel like from a consumer value perspective, it's anchored in your brand. and in the scaled operations that allow you to stand out during periods of elevated distress in news. But I do think it feels like anyway, and correct me if I'm wrong, that the country, at least with the last (inaudible), like it's moving a little bit to the right and what someone wants from their news outlet is diverging to some extent with what other might be wanting. So in that context, does it feel like mainstream media has become more of a target for growing distrust. And how might that affect your approach in terms of establishing a direct relationship with your consumer? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 03, 2025 / 9:50PM, NYT.N - New York Times Co at Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Got it. Got it. So digging deeper on that engagement part in terms of the growth that you're seeing, it sounds like it's fairly broad-based, both in terms of news and not news.

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Can you dissect it a little bit between your existing paid user base relative to the broader (inaudible) user base that you're targeting in terms of the ability.

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Got it. On that front, I think you've spoken for some years now on your changing relationship with news aggregators as a source of traffic headwind. And I think also more recently, you mentioned the AI models as potentially a source of that headwind as well. Can you just give us an update on whether these headwinds are rising, abating? Or what the trend line looks like there?

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. You mentioned the sustained level of news attention in news cycle that's been continuing in the last month or 2 post-election. It feels like there's certainly an opportunity there, variability of the news cycle (inaudible). I think in the past has been an opportunity for subscriber acquisition. Do you feel like this moment is still as much of an opportunity in terms of how you see your ability to attract subscribers as it has been before, when the news cycle has been this heavy?

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. On that point, on the non-news front, you have seen growing success and adoption across games, cooking, athletic, what exactly would you say is your competitive advantage in those non-news categories?

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : I guess in other words, I mean there's no shortage of lifestyle platforms that are available that are targeting consumers why has the New York Times cooking, for example, been scaling so successfully compared to -- REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 03, 2025 / 9:50PM, NYT.N - New York Times Co at Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Is the plan then to nourish these as discrete brands as opposed to an overall offering that New York Times and the New York Times bundle has to offer? Like how do you take that approach of building these value propositions?

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Got it. Let's talk about that bundle strategy then. I think the bundled multiproduct segment at this point is already over half of your digital subscriber base. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 03, 2025 / 9:50PM, NYT.N - New York Times Co at Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Almost.

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Close. Can you help dimension-wise the engagement and the churn benefits that you're seeing to date, and maybe just compare that to historically how that compares with the news-only subscribers?

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : You redesigned the app recently, I think, in service of the bundle. What are the early findings from that? What else should we expect from technology road map that does engagement in --

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : So as we think about the opportunity to grow that engagement and to harness that demand and that increase in consumer value, translating that to ARPU and pricing power, subscriber ARPU has performed quite nicely in the last year. I think you effectively guided to healthy growth in 2025 as well. What underpins that confidence in what we've talked about.

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Do you think you have always been, to some extent, ahead of the curve on building that digital subscriber acquisition model deciding when to run promotions, understanding the consumer in terms of when at an appropriate time, you might ask them to pay more. Given some of the timing of that, as you think about the last 18 months, and how you've kind of built into the bundle as the primary entry point, should we expect there to be any volatility in the size of the cohort of the bundle subscribers who become eligible for a price graduation at any given time, or are you expecting that to just continue to build --

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Is there more to be done on the customer journey side of things in terms of the back-end decision-making model to decide when to -- REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 03, 2025 / 9:50PM, NYT.N - New York Times Co at Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Got it. I want to, before we run out of time, hit on advertising and expenses. Just on the advertising side, you've talked more recently about expanding the supply on non-news services. Should we think about the growth there from here as tied to increased engagement on those platforms? Or are there additional levers on the inventory and fill rates that you still think that are an opportunity for you to kind of --

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : How would you characterize the broader ad market today compared to maybe a quarter or 2 ago?

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Got it. Okay. I wanted to quickly touch on your view about the the marketing expenses, which I think was a particular emphasis on the quarter that people were focused on a little bit more. You have been clear in the past about the vast majority of paid subscribers starting organically. There was also a healthy step-up in marketing spend nonetheless in the last 2 quarters and perhaps maybe less of a corresponding subscriber growth than maybe some might have expected. Can you help us think through just the framework on marketing efforts, and what it meant to achieve across your different areas of the cost of the tunnel?

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. Got it. Last one, if I could squeeze in. Just in terms of the new formats that you talked about innovating into video and audio, I do believe you have spent some time now kind of --

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Maybe help just frame that in the context of where you might start to see the benefit as it relates to engagement in the core paid subscriber base or expansion of the top of an audience. And then in the broader context of your expense growth outlook, do we need to see an acceleration in core content expenses to support this investment? And if not, where might some other areas start to slow?

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Great. Well, we're out of time. Thank you so much for being here.